[Citizen, July 2000]
She wrapped her baby boy in a crib bedsheet covered with tiny balls and bats. He wore an angel necklace and a felt diaper. Carefully she laid him where someone was sure to find him, near a parked car, 200 feet from the entrance to the Indianapolis Community Hospital.
[Beliefnet, July 13, 2000[Is it right to proselytize?
Already it’s a loaded question. “Proselytism” has about as many appealing connotations as “root canal.” It’s more pointed than “evangelism,” which means exposition of the Gospel to any and everyone, particularly those of no faith at all. Proselytizing implies undermining an existing faith in order to clear ground for a new one.
[Beliefnet, July 2000]
What’s 2 3/4 by 5 inches and can scare the hell out of you?
Gotta be one of these miniature comic books put out by Chick Publications. You’ve probably seen them before, maybe picked one up in a phone booth or fast-food joint. Each booklet is about twenty pages long, and makes a pitch for the Gospel through a dramatic story told in cartoon format.
[Christianity Today, July 10, 2000]
I've been thinking lately about Mary Hartman's husband's hat.
You might remember the late-70's TV show, “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.” This Norman Lear satire of a soap opera showcased the strange citizens of the mythical town of Ferndale. Mary's husband Tom
[Beliefnet, June 20, 2000]
Of the many mysteries about Jesus, this may be the greatest: why we continue to care about him. Brave leaders and wise teachers by the score have passed through these 2,000 years, but none has continued to resonate like he does.
From the end of his earthly life Jesus has captured and commanded hearts in every century and every land. (Christianity isn't a “Western religion”; Western ignorance of the ancient Eastern church doesn't mean it doesn't exist.)
Jesus has no parallel in human history.
[Unpublished, June 2000]
MEMO
To: DavidFrom: Mom & Dad, Inc.Re: Offspring
Congratulations! Mom & Dad, Inc., are pleased to hear that you and Marcella have had a baby. Good work. Though a new baby is a demanding project (for further reference, see top end, bottom end, intermediate regions, etc.) we anticipate that this investment of time and effort will be as rewarding to you as similar endeavors have been to us (see family scrapbooks).
While the project has been labor-intensive so far, with Marcella even pulling a couple of all-nighters there at the end,
[Beliefnet, May 30, 2000]
If you’re in the market for a great big Bucket o’ Compassion, the best place to look would be the May 2000 Neiman-Marcus catalogue. It sports a sincere moss-green cover embossed with a cream-colored card, which proclaims “Compassion: A Tribute to Loving Hearts and Minds.” The font is so noble you want to cry.
[Christianity Today, May 22, 2000]
So one day this guy hears his doorbell ring and he goes to answer the door. He doesn't see anybody there, but looking down he sees a snail creeping along the welcome mat. He picks it up and tosses it far across the lawn.
[Beliefnet, May 18, 2000]Way back in 1969, my husband was one of the hundreds of thousands who went to Woodstock --the original one. He says all he remembers is “lying on the ground a lot.”
I didn't go; I was too young. But I listened diligently to the three-record set, and wished I had been there. It all sounded so heroic: Joan Baez's talk about draft resistance, Arlo Guthrie's celebration of drug smuggling, references to “the pigs” that conjured an Establishment bent on oppression.
[Books & Culture, May-June, 2000]
A journey of a dozen blocks begins with a single stepCin my case, stepping into the front seat of a cab on the Harvard campus while Gloria Steinem stepped into the back. My eyes were still red from crying. How I got there is another story.
In October, 1999 Harvard Divinity School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government co-sponsored a conference titled “Core Connections: Women, Religion, and Public Policy.” Admirably, the conference’s organizers tried to include in the mix women that don’t usually get invited to such shindigs, such as evangelical Christians. To recruit these attendees, Ambassador Swanee Hunt, director of the Women and Public Policy Program at the JFK School, enlisted the help of her sister, June Hunt, evangelical author and host of the Hope for the Heart radio broadcast. A third sister, Helen Hunt, (not the actress, but director of the Sisters Fund), provided funding for the conference.
